Palmer and Shepard
by Jedi Master Karzon
Summary: When Shepard's crew finds an odd mech-like figure while investigating geth activity, no one can begin to guess the consequences. Because now there is another badass commander on the Normandy. It almost makes you feel sorry for Saren and Sovereign because this isn't her first rodeo...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: So, current annoying plot bunny and hopeful peace offering. Apologies to everyone hoping that I will continue with my other stories. Please consult my profile for an update on that. Now, this story will make reference to my Halo story "Escaped the Reach". I will try to explain relevant things here but I would suggest reading that for some clarification. Due to lack of familiarity, Halo Escalation is not part of this continuity. As usual, some knowledge of the universes involved is expected. Also please note that I use metric.**

_**SSV Normandy SR1**_**, 2183**

Jane Shepard, Kaidan Alenko, Ashley Williams and Garrus Vakarian heaved a sigh of relief as they deposited the object in between them on the deck next to the Mako. Urdnot Wrex snorted as he watched Ashley collapse to the ground and lean back against one of the wheels of the Mako while Shepard walked to the intercom to speak to Joker.

"What the hell's that meant to be?" Wrex snorted as he looked at the thing lying in middle of the storage bay.

"What does it look like? It's a mech of some kind," Ashley retorted.

"Ain't like any mech I've seen before," Wrex pointed out, walking over.

"What ever it is, it had the geth very interested," Kaidan commented.

Wrex grunted in acknowledgment while Shepard and Garrus merely watched. Wrex leaned down to examine the feminine-looking mech. It was large, probably over two meters tall, and had large pieces of armour attached, with a large knife strapped to the chest piece. The armour was pale grey with red highlights and a light blue stripe, almost like a visor, across the front of the head.

As Wrex leaned closer to the head, the right hand shot out at incredible speed, delivering a punishing uppercut to the krogan's chin. The shocked krogan staggered back at the force of the blow as the figure leapt to its feet with a loud thud. Before any of them could react, it lashed out again, sending Kaidan soaring across the bay with an open palmed strike to the chest. It seemed to blur as it charged Garrus, sending a trio of rapid strikes at his torso before gripping him by the throat and throwing him at the recovering Wrex. Ashley, having managed to draw her pistol, opened fire only for the figure to sidestep the bullets before stepping forward and batting the gun aside with her forearm. A sharp elbow to Ashley's gut knocked the breath from her with the following backhand sending her crashing into a wall. Shepard flared blue as she launched a lift at the figure picking it up into the air.

Those still conscious staggered to his feet as Shepard relaxed slightly as she took in the floating figure. The head turned slightly as though in confusion as the mech slowly spun around a horizontal axis. The group's relief was short-lived.

When its feet were once more facing the floor, the hulking mech fell to the ground and stayed standing, unaffected by the mass effect fields attempting to keep it in the air. Wrex let out a roar of rage and ran at the figure. It didn't even try to dodge out of the battlemaster's way, merely planting its feet and grasping the krogan by the shoulders when he got close enough. It slid back half a meter before coming to a stop, despite Wrex's best efforts. Using its grip on his shoulders, the mech flipped the krogan over onto his side before delivering a kick to his midsection that catapulted the one ton creature straight through the Mako, barely giving the remaining fighters a chance to dodge.

Before he could recover from his dive out of the path of a flying krogan, Garrus found himself grasped by the back of the neck and lifted into the air, feet dangling a dozen centimeters from the floor. The hulking figure barely paused before slamming him face first into the nearby bulkhead before dropping his limp form. The figure turned and seemed to glare at the two Alliance soldiers standing side by side.

"So, who's next?" a distinctly feminine voice taunted from the figure.

"Wait, you can talk?" Kaidan exclaimed, dropping his guard in surprise.

"Of course. I'm a SPARTAN not a robot."

"There appears to have been a misunderstanding here," Shepard commented, wary.

After clarifying that no, they were not rebels and that yes, the aliens were allies, the massive figure introduced itself.

"I'm Commander Sarah Palmer, XO of the _UNSC Infinity_ and commanding officer of her SPARTAN complement," the SPARTAN introduced herself.

"What's the _UNSC Infinity_? And that's the second time you've mentioned SPARTANs. What's a SPARTAN?" asked Kaidan.

"Seriously? Where've you been for six years? Under a rock?" Palmer asked, disbelief oozing from every letter.

When she realised that they were completely serious, her disbelief only increased.

"Really? You have no idea what the _UNSC Infinity_ is? The singular most powerful warship made by man and you've never heard of it?" Palmer asked, incredulous.

"What are you talking about? The most powerful ships in the Alliance are the _Kilimanjaro_-class dreadnoughts and there isn't one called the _Infinity_, much less _UNSC Infinity_," Shepard told her, confused.

Palmer paused before speaking again.

"What year is it?" she asked, cautiously, as though she feared the answer.

"What? Why?" Kaidan asked.

"Just answer the goddamn question!" the SPARTAN shouted, suddenly angry.

"2183," Kaidan answered quickly, now terrified.

Palmer paused, looked around the bay, focused briefly on Tali who had just come in, before looking at the floor and muttering an expletive they couldn't quite make out.

"Last thing I remember, the year was 2559 and I was on Solace. Forerunner device acts up, everything goes black and I wake up with frog-boy looming over me," Palmer explains, nodding her head toward the Wrex-shaped hole in the side of the Mako.

"Okay, so you use a different counting system," Kaidan started to say before being cut off by Palmer reaching up.

There was a click before she pulled the helmet off, revealing a very much human head. A quiet "Keelah!" was heard from Tali while the two Alliance soldiers just stared in silence.

"See why it's a major thing? So far, I have two theories: one, you're civilisation is the result of some long lost colony ship, or two: I'm from a completely different reality, corny as it sounds," Palmer explained.

"What?" Shepard asked in shock.

"Where I'm from, wherever that may be relative to here, humanity didn't develop any form of FTL until the late 23rd century when we discovered Slipspace. That out there isn't Slipspace," Palmer informed them, pointing out the window.

She gave them a moment to consider this before ploughing on.

"Our first contact occurred at the colony of Harvest in 2525 and resulted in a twenty-eight year war against a more advanced and more numerous civilisation known as the Covenant intent on wiping humanity from existence. The majority of our personal weapons systems still rely on chemically propelled bullets, unlike your weird looking toys," Palmer continued, waving a dismissive hand at their guns.

"And I take it you have proof?" Kaidan asked, now skeptical.

"You mean besides physical and mental scars, a great deal more experience in combat than seemingly any one else on this ship, armour more advanced than anything else I can see in this bay and recordings from Solace, which I can't show you anyway? No," Palmer stated, annoyance visible on her face.

Before Kaidan could piss her off further, Shepard decided to fill her in on some of the contrasts.

"Here, humanity discovered FTL travel in 2148 due to some alien ruins on Mars, which introduced us to mass effect physics and the mass relays. Almost every weapon in the known galaxy relies on mass effect physics to function. First contact for us resulted in a one month war on the colony of Shanxi before the multispecies government known as the Citadel Council stepped in," Shepard explained, while signalling Kaidan and Tali to help their teammates.

The next hour consisted of comparisons between the two human civilisations. Palmer was horrified to hear that humanity's largest ships were barely a kilometre long until she discovered that there were only two vessels known to be bigger at which point she almost died of laughter. Shepard was shocked to learn that the _UNSC Infinity _exceeded five and a half kilometres and it wasn't even the biggest vessel that humanity knew of. Palmer was delighted to discover that the Alliance had become relatively powerful in twenty six years but positively livid to discover that their military obviously wasn't capable of defending their territory effectively. Shepard was surprised to learn that the UNSC had, at its height, had a military that it seemed would've been capable of easily driving the turians back but horrified that they made use of AIs and nuclear weapons on a regular basis, not to mention the SPARTAN-II and III Programs. When Shepard mentioned her mission and its cause, Palmer paused thoughtful expression on her face.

"Sounds like you could use all the help you can get," Palmer commented after a moment.

"Yeah," Shepard replied, wondering where this was going.

"The UNSC motto is 'For Earth and all her colonies'. I might not be in the UNSC anymore but Earth and her colonies still need help. If you'll have me, I'll help you," the SPARTAN told the N7.

"Judging by what you did to my ground team, you'll be most helpful. Just be prepared for some animosity, I doubt they'll all be as understanding as me," Shepard warned.

"I'm a SPARTAN-III. I'm used to suspicion, distaste and sometimes outright hatred from my allies," Palmer answered with a wry smirk.

That said, the older woman walked over to the Mako, pulled her helmet on and then reached in and heaved Wrex out and onto her shoulder before carrying him after Kaidan who was half-carrying, half-dragging Garrus into the lift. As the lift doors closed on the calm-looking SPARTAN and nervous-looking biotic, the only thought going through Shepard's mind was 'well this is going to be interesting'.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Because the first chapter was really just an introduction to the premise, I suppose this could be described as being chapter 1. Oh well. Lots of people are complaining that Palmer is a SPARTAN-IV not a SPARTAN III. I know this but in Escaped the Reach (which I recommended reading), I explain that Palmer was Noble Six from Halo Reach. In other words, a SPARTAN-III.**

_**SSV Normandy SR1**_**, 2183**

After a few hours, Garrus, Ashley and Wrex were deemed well enough to leave the medbay by Chakwas, they returned to the storage bay to find a tall brunette clad in some kind of jumpsuit sitting in one corner, examining a dismantled assault rifle. Shepard was standing by the lockers keeping a wary eye on the other woman while she checked her own equipment. The trio walked over to Shepard, checking their equipment was all stored properly.

"Who's that, Skipper?" Ashley asked quietly.

"Commander Sarah Palmer. She's part of the ground team for now. I'll make a more definitive decision once I've seen her in action against something other than us," Shepard remarked sardonically.

It took a moment for her statement to sink in.

"Wait, you mean that's what pounded us to a pulp?" Garrus exclaimed.

Shepard merely nodded.

"And what's she still doing on the ship? Shepard, you should've spaced her," Ashley growled.

"We have an arrangement, Chief, one that will not benefit from me throwing her out of the airlock," Shepard responded.

"Even if you tried, do you really think you could?" Palmer called from her position bent over the disassembled rifle.

The quartet froze in shock. There should have been no way the woman should've been able to hear them well enough to understand them from the other side of the bay. As they all turned to stare at her, she simply smirked at them over her shoulder before returning to her work. They were saved from further trouble by Joker announcing that they were nearing Noveria.

"Wrex, go and get Tali from engineering, would you? You two and Palmer are on my ground team," Shepard told the krogan.

Palmer was already moving toward the nearby crate holding her armour by the time Shepard finished talking. Despite that, it still took her almost twenty minutes to put on her armour. That done, she grabbed the two HMWP Master X Pistols and HMWA Master X Assault Rifle Shepard had provided for her and attached them to the appropriate magnetic holsters on her body, not bothering to collapse them.

She reached the airlock just as the _Normandy_ slid into the dock. After stepping off the ship, the group approached the security checkpoint. After a brief standoff that almost resulted in a gunfight, the group were admitted to Port Hanshan. After fighting their way (at one point literally, much to Wrex and Palmer's relief) through the corporate intrigue at Port Hanshan, they finally got permission to head to the garage and Peak 15.

As they entered the garage, Shepard was forced into cover as geth troops opened fire on her. Unfortunately for the geth, two shotguns, an assault rifle and a pair of pistols, all of them top of the line, are nothing to laugh at and the group of geth were quickly reduced to scrap metal.

"Keelah! What are geth doing here?" Tali asked, shocked.

"Hey, as one of my old friends would've said 'Cheer up. This whole valley just became a free fire zone'. To be fair, he didn't particularly care about winning anything, he just wanted the enemy to die. Good times," Palmer reminisced.

Tali and Shepard gave her worried looks while Wrex snorted in amusement. Just then, the Port Hanshan security team burst in (as much as you can with a sliding door).

"What's going on? I got reports of gunfire," the captain called before spotting the geth scrap.

"What? Are those geth? How did geth get through our scanners? Look into it, immediately," she ordered one of her subordinates, who nodded before running back out.

"Thanks for dealing with them, Commander. I apologise that you had to. I can assure you, we will be looking into this," the captain said to Shepard.

Shepard merely nodded in response before joining her team in the Mako. As the garage door opened, Shepard drove out into the blizzard toward the Peak 15 facility. As Shepard drove along, shooting the occasional geth, Tali decided to talk to Palmer.

"That's very interesting armour. I've never seen anything like it," the quarian began.

The helmet looked up, visor staring impassively back.

"This is MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armour. It's one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the UNSC arsenal," Palmer told her.

"But how does it work? I'm not picking up any eezo," Tali asked.

"I can tell you that it doesn't use eezo. Everything else is classified," Palmer concluded.

"But you didn't keep things from Shepard," Tali grumbled.

"True but that was because I didn't have to. Everything I mentioned is common knowledge to everyone in UNSC territory. You'll notice that I never actually explained how a lot of things worked. In a lot of cases, that's because I don't know. In every case, it's because that's classified to various degrees," Palmer explained.

Tali tilted her head slightly as she considered this while Palmer kept talking.

"And don't try and examine my armour when I'm not around. It has a built in detonation device that would probably wipe out the _Normandy_ if the armour gets messed with," Palmer pointed out to the quarian.

Tali's eyes visibly widened at that news while Wrex let out another snort of amusement at the conversation. Further discussion was halted as Shepard climbed out of the driver's seat.

"Alright, let's go, people," she ordered as she climbed out.

"Time to see if you're as good as you think," Wrex commented to Palmer.

"Please, this isn't my first rodeo," Palmer retorted.

That said, she slid out of the Mako after Shepard followed by Wrex with Tali bringing up the rear. As they walked in, they were ambushed by a group of geth and a pair of krogan. While the others all dove into cover, Palmer seemed frozen in shock as a gold shield of some kind flared around her.

"Palmer, get to cover," Shepard yelled.

That snapped Palmer into action as a light blue shield materialised on her forearm which she brought up to cover her body. Using it as a temporary cover she made her way to a nearby pillar.

"I knew these weapons were rubbish but I didn't realise they were this bad. Those barely scratch my shields," Palmer muttered, quietly delighted.

Palmer's two pistols were quickly adding their fire to the rounds being fired by Shepard's team. Palmer's highly accurate fire made short work of the geth while combined fire from the others killed the krogan. As the last get fell to a well placed round through its head, Shepard stalked over to Palmer.

"What the hell happened there, Palmer?" Shepard asked, livid.

"I made an unexpected discovery. Won't happen again, ma'am," Palmer answered, slipping back into her SPARTAN-III training in the face of an angry superior officer as she snapped to attention.

"What did you discover?" Tali asked.

"That your weapons are even weaker than I expected," Palmer answered, not relaxing her stance.

"What?" Shepard asked, losing her train of thought at that revelation.

"The rounds I took on entering barely dropped my shields by 50%," Palmer explained quickly.

"WHAT? That amount of gunfire should've at the very least removed about 90% of your barriers. What the hell do those kinetic barriers run on?" Tali yelled, almost hysterical.

"What's a kinetic barrier? I have energy shields," Palmer answered, confused.

"What? You know what? We'll discuss this on the ship, we need to keep moving," Shepard ordered.

Palmer nodded, relaxing again, while the other two merely drew their weapons before the group continued. As they fought their way through the facility, they noticed that there seemed to be measures in place to contain something. Eventually they found out what.

As they approached the stairs to leave the cafeteria, a group of small bugs of some kind raced down the steps toward them. Palmer freaked, momentarily mistaking them for Flood infection forms before realising they weren't. This realisation took barely a second before Palmer opened fire with her pistols. Her dual pistols made short work of the group of bugs while the others just watched, confused.

"Why'd you kill them? They were just bugs," Shepard asked.

"Just because it isn't as big, or bigger, than you doesn't mean it isn't dangerous," Palmer pointed out as though it was obvious.

Shepard shook her head in disbelief at what seemed to be excessive paranoia before proceeding up the stairs and promptly having to dive out of the way as the two large bugs at the top shot acid at her. Wrex raced up after her, crashing straight into one of the creatures while Palmer, Shepard and Tali opened fire on the other one. Once Wrex had blasted the bugs brains all over the floor and the others had filled the other with enough ammunition to kill a geth colossus, Shepard leaned down to examine it.

"What is it?" Shepard wondered aloud.

"Impossible, that's what," Wrex grunted.

Shepard looked up at Wrex in askance so he elaborated.

"Going off the stories, they're rachni."

That caused Palmer's head to snap around from where she was examining their surroundings.

"I thought they were extinct," Shepard said, confused.

"They are. But he's right. These match the pictures in the codex," Tali informed them, looking at her omni-tool.

"Okay then. We try to figure out what's going on here and we deal with it. Benezia is still top priority," Shepard instructed.

After fighting their way through the rest of the station, reactivating the VI and the tramline, the group found a squad of soldiers guarding a door.

"Stand down, people. They ain't rachni," the groups leader ordered.

The guards all lowered their weapons but kept careful watch on the room. While Shepard and Captain Ventralis talked, Wrex and Tali watched the room while Palmer watched Ventralis closely. When he mentioned that Benezia was in the hot labs, Palmer stepped in.

"You're lying. Where is she really?" Palmer asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ventralis started to say, tensing slightly.

"I used to be one of the best black ops soldiers around. Assassinations, interrogations, you name I almost certainly did it. I can tell when someone's lying to me," Palmer stated, cracking her knuckles.

"Palmer, stand down," Shepard ordered.

The helmet turned slightly toward Shepard before the SPARTAN walked back a couple of steps.

"If what she says is true, I'd start telling me the truth or I'll let her get it out of you," Shepard warned.

Both of them glanced at Palmer and could just about see the vicious grin, despite the helmet. Before anything more could be said, Palmer darted across the room, smashed her hand through a grate and lifted a struggling rachni soldier out. She pulled out her combat knife and jammed it through its head before dropping it into the other vent, knocking the soldier in there back down again. She flicked her knife casually a few times to get the blood off as she walked back to Shepard.

"Like I said, the truth," Shepard warned again.

Ventralis seemed to snap out of his shock and decided that being honest was his best option here.

"OK. She's not in the hot labs, she's in the central lab. I don't know what she's doing there but that's where she went," the Captain told them.

Palmer nodded slightly when Shepard glanced at her for confirmation.

"Alright. I'll need access. If she isn't there, we'll be back and I'll let Palmer get the answers," Shepard threatened.

Palmer casually ran a finger along the edge of her knife, grinning under her helmet when Ventralis gulped in fear. The quartet made their way past the security checkpoint and across the room to the door Ventralis directed them to. After passing a few guards, they came to the door to the central labs.

"Check your gear, we're going in," Shepard ordered.

They paused a few seconds before proceeding into the room. The asari matriarch, Benezia, was stood on a raised platform ahead of them, facing a massive rachni, and started talking as they approached. Unnoticed by anyone, Palmer seemed to melt out of existence.

"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it toward happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies. Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have," Benezia said.

"We don't have to fight. You can return to the Citadel with us," Shepard tried to reason.

"I think not," was Benezia's response followed by locking the trio in stasis.

A pair of asari commandos ran up to join Benezia but two pistol shots to the head killed one while a combat knife through the jugular killed the other. Palmer appeared behind the asari as she yanked the blade out.

"Tell me, have ever faced a SPARTAN before? Stupid question. If you had, you'd be dead," Palmer remarked.

Benezia sneered at her before using her biotics to toss the half-ton SPARTAN to her comrades, where she crashed into a cluster of nearby crates.

"Nice trick, SPARTAN," Wrex grunted since the stasis had worn off when Benezia had thrown Palmer.

Palmer barely had time to nod in response before the team scattered as they fought the newly arrived geth and asari. Whenever they dealt with one group, Benezia would freeze them, buying time for her reinforcements to come in. Eventually, with her excessive use of biotics, Benezia collapsed, exhausted. While the others spoke with her, and then the rachni queen, Palmer checked through each door to make sure there weren't any more reinforcements. Turned out to be a smart thing to do as she ended up fighting a couple of asari and half a dozen geth in total that could've otherwise caught them off-guard.

Palmer walked back in just as the large rachni ran out of its cage, to grumbles from Wrex. Palmer waited for them at the bottom of the steps before they left to return to the _Normandy_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Firstly, rant time. If you don't like the way I write, tough shit. I don't particularly care. I write because I want to write and I write how I want to write. Deal with it or get lost. Rant over, moving on. Next chapter is already in the works.**

_**SSV Normandy SR1**_**, 2183**

Shepard stepped off the elevator into the cargo bay to find Palmer almost lazily lifting weights in the corner. Shepard walked over to the woman on the bench press, who didn't even pause her workout.

"Commander Shepard," Palmer acknowledged.

"Palmer. Everyone else is upstairs eating, why aren't you with them?" Shepard asked, noting that Palmer didn't even seem out of breath.

"Already ate half an hour ago. Besides, my time is better spent exercising than socialising," Palmer remarked.

"So what were you doing beforehand?" Shepard wondered.

"What do you mean 'beforehand'? I've been here since I finished eating," Palmer told her.

"What? Maybe you need to make it heavier, it doesn't seem to be much of an effort for you," the younger woman suggested.

"If I put more on, I'll snap the bar. It's already at 300kg," Palmer casually explained.

"300kg? But you don't even seem to be struggling," Shepard said, shocked.

"What, did you think my strength came from the armour? The armour merely augments my strength. Without it, I can bench press almost a ton," the SPARTAN pointed out nonchalantly.

Shepard just sat and watched in silence for a minute before talking again.

"We're approaching the Citadel to get some supplies, do you want to come?" Shepard asked.

"Sure. Let's see what all the fuss is about," Palmer said, after a second.

"Well, we'll be in the system in an hour or so," Shepard told her.

"Got it, Commander," Palmer answered as Shepard stood to go.

Shepard was in the cockpit with Joker as they entered the Widow System. Palmer stepped up beside her a second later, fully armoured with her helmet under her arm.

"So, Palmer, ready to be awed?" Joker asked.

"We'll see," was all the SPARTAN said in response.

As they passed a particularly dense cloud, the Citadel and its fleet came into view.

"Look at that thing. Over forty kilometres in length and more than ten wide. Largest construct in the galaxy," Joker boasted.

"And let's not forget the _Destiny Ascension_, pride of the Navy. Just shy of 1.5 kilometres long," Ashley added as she arrived and pointed out the ship in question.

"Wow, 1.5 kilometres. That's amazing," Palmer remarked, sarcasm oozing from her voice.

Ashley looked at her in confusion while Joker raised an eyebrow as he steered the _Normandy_ toward the station.

"As for that station, it's not overly impressive if you've been _inside_ an artificial planet over 10,000 kilometres in diameter," Palmer pointed out.

Without waiting for a response, Palmer turned and walked away.

"Trying to impress her with technology isn't going to work, you two. She served as XO on a ship over 5.5 kilometres long. As far as she's concerned, we've got nothing bigger than a cruiser. Yes, that includes the _Ascension_," Shepard added as Ashley opened her mouth.

"Holy shit," was all Joker could say in response.

"Ash, you know what you're supposed to be doing on station. I'm going to accompany Palmer, make sure she doesn't attract too much attention," Shepard told them.

"Good luck with that, Commander. That's like trying to hide a dreadnought amongst frigates," Joker commented as he guided the _Normandy_ into its dock.

After some slight issues with C-Sec where Palmer nearly snapped a turian in half after he approached her with his weapon raised, the two women stepped onto the Presidium. Palmer stepped forward and leaned against a railing, looking out at the water ahead of her. Shepard stepped up next to her and did the same.

"This place is a mess," Palmer burst out after a while.

"What do you mean? You're in the best defended location in the known galaxy except the turian homeworld. Even the asari and salarians aren't this well defended," Shepard replied.

"From what I've seen so far, give me a prowler, two teams of SPARTAN-IVs and a couple of nuclear mines and I'd be able to abduct the three most powerful people in the galaxy. The only line of defence between the docks and the tower is the Academy and I could get through _that_ alone. The UNSC would never allow that little protection for the UEG _ambassadors_ never mind the leaders of the UEG," Palmer explained.

She looked around while Shepard just stared at her, shocked at how quickly Palmer dismissed the security on and around the station.

"On second thoughts, I could do it without the prowler or the second team," Palmer amended derisively.

"Okay, so what would you change?" Shepard asked once she got over her shock.

Palmer paused and looked around a little more closely before talking.

"Extending cover in front of those doors," Palmer began, pointing to the lift to the Academy, the doors to the embassies and the lift to the tower.

She turned and pointed to a building across the reservoir.

"I'd get a sniper's nest up there and have it manned 24/7 because it gives them full view of the entire approach to the tower," Palmer explained.

She turned to point at the tower.

"Automated turrets in the wall there, there and there," the SPARTAN continued, indicating three points on the side of the tower.

"Why in those places?" Shepard interrupted her.

"Easy. Together, those three turrets would cover every path to the tower," Palmer shrugged.

She turned and leaned against the railing again.

"Of course, I'd also store something in these," she said, waving at the reservoir in front of her.

"Oh? What?" Shepard asked.

"Robots, LRVs or automated turrets. Maybe a mixture of all three," Palmer replied, as though she regularly hid robots, LRVs and turrets in otherwise innocuous reservoirs.

Shepard just stared at her like she'd grown a third head.

"What?" Palmer asked when she noticed the look.

"I'm surprised at how much you would want to add," Shepard justified herself.

"Please, I'd much rather rebuild the entire thing. The layout and design are moronic. No use for defence whatsoever. And don't get me started on the amount of civilians in the area," Palmer pointed out, shuddering at the last sentence.

"The UNSC seems paranoid," Shepard noted.

"There is a distinct difference between paranoid and prepared. The UNSC is prepared, not paranoid. You lot could do with being more so," Palmer stated.

They lapsed into silence until Palmer pushed off the railing.

"So, what passes for a cafe around here?" she asked the younger woman.

"There's a relatively nice one over this way, come on," Shepard told her, leading the way to the cafe in question.

To their surprise, they found Wrex sitting by the window. After getting a small cake each and a coffee, the two joined Wrex by the window.

"So from what you've told me, you must have some good stories," Shepard prompted.

"Yeah, there was that one where the Covenant tried to wipe us out. That sucked," Palmer responded sarcastically.

"Please, you think you know what genocide's like? Look up the Genophage and you'll see how wrong you are," Wrex growled.

"I did. The krogan brought it on themselves but it should still have been lifted by now. The UNSC was at war because we were an affront to the Covies' religion. They burned our worlds and slaughtered our people. Before the war, humanity's population was in the region of twelve _billion_ and we controlled almost eight hundred worlds. Afterwards, our population was just over twenty-one thousand million and we controlled barely thirty worlds and most of the rest had been burned to glass. You say that to any other human here, fine. Say something like that to me again and I will rip you apart with my bare hands. You got that?" Palmer nearly shouted at the end, having stood up halfway through.

Shepard, Wrex and most of the cafe just stared at her, shocked at the outburst. Getting no reaction from him, Palmer grabbed Wrex by the front of his neck and slammed him against the glass, causing a spider's web of cracks to appear.

"I said, you got that?" Palmer growled, nose to nose with the choking krogan battlemaster.

Wrex could only nod in response so she dropped him, resulting in him collapsing in a heap as he tried to catch his breath.

"Thanks for the coffee, Shepard. I'll see you back on the ship," the SPARTAN stated before turning and stalking out of the cafe, leaving her untouched cake and coffee behind.

Palmer marched back the way they'd come, foul mood visible to all as they scrambled out of the massive woman's path. As she was crossing a nearly deserted bridge, three turians stepped into her path while another two stepped out behind her. All five were lightly armoured and wore some kind of gang sign on their shoulder.

"You gotta pay the toll to use our bridge," the leader sneered.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way," Palmer snarled through gritted teeth.

"No. You pay the toll just like anyone else, one way or another. Even others of your kind can figure that out, stupid though you humans are," the lead turian laughed.

That was the last straw for Palmer. Faster than anyone could react, Palmer grabbed the turian by the throat and threw halfway across the reservoir. He would have flown right across, had his head not impacted, and dented, another bridge across the reservoir. Her left foot shot out, heel impacting the chin of one of the turians behind her, snapping his neck and sending him halfway down the bridge. The edge of her right hand swung around, crushing the windpipe of another turian in front of her while her other hand, balled into a fist, smashed into the other's face, cracking his faceplate. On its way back, her left elbow slammed into the final turian's chest, impacting his ribcage with the force of a small car and sending him flying back a few meters with some of his ribs in contact with his spine in ways biology never meant to happen.

Palmer paused to massage her knuckles before stalking onwards as C-Sec arrived on the scene.

"Keep your gangs under control. And don't forget the one in the water," she added as an afterthought.

When she stormed onto the ship after spending the entirety of each elevator ride vowing to brutally murder the designer, a number of crew members cowered in fear as she passed and no one in the cargo bay commented when she started to punch a nearby crate. Everyone would later agree it was probably wise, given the dents she put in the crate. When Ashley returned and tried to talk to her, Palmer offered to use her as a punching bag instead of the crate. Palmer didn't even pause when the _Normandy_ took off although when Wrex stepped off the lift there was a stutter in the rhythm of her punches.

She only stopped when Shepard came over to her to inform her that they were headed for Feros and she should get ready to go. Palmer grunted in acknowledgement and started punching the crate again, only stopping permanently when she punched a hole in the crate and realised there was blood pouring from her knuckles.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: So yeah, I'm still here. This might explain why Palmer and Six don't seem the same. Feros this time and a slight deviation from standard canon for the sake of the story. It always seemed so impersonal to me…**

**Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist so I have no idea if my explanation makes proper sense. I accept full responsibility for inaccuracies but none for misconceptions that result from it. No offence is intended.**

**Feros, Theseus System**

Shepard, Palmer, Garrus and Ashley stepped out of the _Normandy_ and walked over to a nearby colony. Before they could get much further than the pleasantries, a group of geth attacked, killing the colonist before turning their fire on the Spectre's team. After fighting through to the colony, they discussed the situation with the leader of the colony, known as Fai Dan. After running a few errands, the team climbed into the mako and started across the skyway. Only pausing briefly to meet some ExoGeni personnel with Palmer staying in the Mako, they blasted their way through the geth blockade. It was only when they reached the ExoGeni building that they encountered trouble.

After climbing out of the Mako and entering the building, they encountered a veritable army of geth. At least a hundred troopers, shock troopers, destroyers, hunters, juggernauts, Primes and hoppers were crammed into the room, weapons aimed but not firing. Saren's voice echoed across an intercom.

"Surrender, Shepard. You can't win this."

"He's right. Stand down," Shepard ordered after a minute's thought.

The group stowed their weapons and were approached by some geth who promptly stunned them with tazers.

The group came to as they were dragged before a hologram of Saren, two troopers dragging each along by their arms except Palmer who was being dragged by two Primes. Ashley and Palmer's helmets were pulled off once they were in view of Saren, who sneered at them all.

"Commander Shepard, you've become something of a thorn in my side. First you mess up my plans for Eden Prime, then you kill Matriarch Benezia and now you show up on Feros. I may have to make an example of you. Clearly, losing your father to batarians wasn't enough to teach you your place. Maybe losing your mother will," Saren threatened.

"Stay away from my mother, you son of a bitch," Shepard yelled, struggling against the grip of the geth.

"Tut tut, you really should keep that temper in check. What about you, Chief Williams? Planning on admitting your inferiority like your grandfather?" Saren commented, seeming genuinely curious.

"Shut up, you stupid fucker," Ashley snarled, also struggling against her captors.

"You humans, all the same. And what of Officer Vakarian? Care to do the right thing? Care to stop being a disgrace to turians everywhere?" Saren tempted.

"I'm not the one who's a disgrace, you cowardly bastard," Garrus roared, trying to throw off his geth.

"Maybe the SPARTAN is more reasonable. Surprised I know what you are? The AI was most helpful before it destroyed itself with its ship. Care to redeem yourself? You couldn't save Reach, could you?" Saren sneered.

Palmer, unlike the others, didn't struggle. Instead, her head dropped in apparent shame, guilt and remorse.

"So many dead. All those innocents, all those soldiers that you didn't save," Saren gloated.

Palmer didn't react, head remaining bowed.

"You couldn't even save your team," Saren grinned.

Palmer visibly tensed. In her mind, she saw as Noble Team fell.

"Tell them to make it count," ordered Jorge as she watched the Corvette and Jorge disappear into Slipspace with a third of the Supercarrier.

"I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost," Kat said as Palmer saw her collapse after a pink crystal tore through her cranium.

"Who's next? I'm ready! How 'bout you?" Emile bellowed as an energy sword erupted from his chest while Palmer watched.

"You're on your own, Noble… Carter out," echoed as Palmer watched the man who had become like an older brother to her crash a Pelican into a Scarab.

Carter's voice echoed in her head as she stared at the ground. When she looked up, even the geth almost stepped back in fear at the glint in her eyes.

There is something that must be understood about Sarah: she suffers from a degree of dissociative identity disorder. Whilst this is normally irrelevant as the personality of Sarah Palmer is dominant, in times of high stress her other personality emerges. This personality is in fact her original personality. The personality of Sarah Palmer was created after a two year coma following the Fall of Reach. It was this other personality that rose up now.

"Big mistake, Arterius. Sarah Palmer, Executive Officer of the _UNSC Infinity_, commander of its SPARTAN complement, might have shown you mercy. From Sarah-B312, Noble Six, one of two hyper-lethal vectors in the UNSC, the only mercy you will receive will be that I'll kill you quickly," B312 growled.

Before more could be said, B312 swung her legs up and wrapped them around the neck of one Prime, using the momentum to yank the other to the floor while her weight pulled the first down onto it as she swung to the other side of it, flipping onto her feet. Drawing her combat knife, she jammed it into the neck of the one on top while she crushed the head of the other between her fist and the ground. Yanking the knife out, she flung it across the room and straight into the head of a geth juggernaut. She scooped up one of the Primes and flung it at a trio of troopers (hard enough to crush them against the wall) before ducking out of the path of a series of rounds from a shock trooper. Ducking and weaving through the stream of bullets, she closed the gap between her and the shock trooper before punching it straight through a nearby wall.

A destroyer tried to punch her in the back of the head but she spun and caught the hulking robot's fist before flipping its arm around, snapping the arm off in the process. She smashed her other fist into its torso with sufficient force to double it over, allowing her to grab its head and smash it on her knee. She yanked its shotgun out of its hand, shot an approaching trooper and then threw it through the head of another.

The six geth holding the other members of the ground team were the only functioning geth left in the room and it had only taken three seconds. B312 smirked at Saren's hologram as she stalked toward the troopers, who made the mistake of dropping their captives. Shepard delivered a biotic punch to the head of one before tossing the other through a wall. Ashley yanked the gun out of the hands of one and gunned both down while Garrus flipped one over his shoulder by the arm into the other before overloading both with his omni-tool.

Saren's mandibles flexed in shock and slight fear as B312 scooped up her helmet and pulled it on before turning to him.

"Start running, Arterius, because you're next," the SPARTAN threatened quietly.

Saren visibly gulped in fear before the hologram shut off.

"There's still an army between us and the way out," Garrus pointed out.

"Commander, permission to engage?" B312 requested.

"Permission granted," Shepard answered after a moment's hesitation.

Sarah allowed a feral grin to appear on her face as she activated her active camouflage and vanished to deal with the geth. The other three stared in shock at the spot she'd occupied for a moment before moving on. After fighting through some geth and krogan, those that weren't rushing toward the lobby, they acquired the information, were warned about the crazy colonists by Joker and started to head back. When they reached the entrance to the lobby, they not only encountered an ExoGeni scientist but also silence from the next room. Fearing the worst, they got into cover before opening the door. The sight that greeted them would stay with them forever.

The SPARTAN was sat on top of a small mountain made up of broken geth and dead krogan. Pieces of geth littered the room and the walls were covered in white and yellow. Sarah was calmly wiping the blood from her dripping knife on the last living krogan's cheek. As the others walked in she calmly sheathed the knife before casually smashing a fist down through the krogan's crest. She sauntered down from her perch and waited for them to reach her. As the soldiers and scientist made their way through the mayhem toward her, Garrus noticed that nothing seemed to have been shot by anything other than geth weapons.

After climbing back into the Mako, the group began the return journey across the skyway. This time when they stopped at the ExoGeni hideout, Sarah accompanied them under orders not to kill anyone. When the scientist gave away their position, the group confronted the man known as Jeong. Apparently, ExoGeni wanted to purge the colony and he was obliged to do so. When it became apparent that Shepard's attempts to negotiate weren't working and Jeong was on the verge of shooting her, B312 stepped in.

There was a bang and a cry of pain as one of the SPARTAN's pistols fired and shattered half the bones in his trigger finger. At Shepard's look, B312 shrugged.

"You said no killing so I didn't kill him," the elder woman explained.

Shepard seemed to decide that this was not the time to berate B312 and so, after being given specialised grenade mods, they returned to the Mako to continue to the colony. After fighting through the colony to the freighter (without injuring any of the colonists), the team were able to move the freighter and proceed down toward the thorian. Sarah demonstrated her ruthless efficiency, taking point and eliminating the majority of creepers in their way. After dealing with the thorian and meeting an asari commando formerly loyal to Saren, the team returned to the ship and left the colony.


End file.
